Ranking the Presidents #9

RONALD REAGAN (R) - 1981-1989

It helps to be in the right place at the right time, but it also helps to be that right person. For all his flaws and the revisionist history he's going through now from both extremes, the 40th President ushered in the end of the Cold War, halted the nuclear arms race and rebooted a desert-dry economy.

Reagan narrowly lost toppling Ford in 1976 but wound up supporting him, if half-heartedly (picture the same way McCain "supported" Bush in 2000). After four floundered years of Carter, the US was ready for renewed optimism, and Reagan brought it. An assassination attempt in his first year of office bought him a little more leeway with Congress in pushing his agenda through. His drastic tax cuts injected new life and new capital into the economy. What is usually lost in the legend of Reagan was his willingness to compromise, especially domestically. His attitude was always he'd rather have 80% of what he wants than 0%. He tried immigration reform, for which today he'd be in the Tea Party's crosshairs. He even raised a tax or two. He also holds the record in highest electoral college election victory in history, winning 49 of the 50 states in 1984.

On the foreign front, he held a hard line with Soviet leaders like Andropov and Chernenko, but when Gorbachev came to power, Reagan thought he finally found someone he could work with, and that wound up being the case. They didn't always agree, but they did manage to cooperate on some arms-race treaties. One of his best moments was at the Berlin Wall, where (to Communists everywhere) he defiantly announced, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Reagan had his problems. The deficit grew on his watch, and some say he was too slow to react to the AIDS epidemic. Also, many on the left blame Reaganomics for the current gulf between the rich and everyone else. He also had the Iran/Contra scandal, where regardless of how much he did or didn't know, it happened in his administration. But after the Nixon/Ford/Carter years, Reagan restored American pride, stared down the Soviet Union, and won.